The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs

Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world. But in 2010, US military officials and geologists revealed that the country, which lies at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, was But, Schoonover continued, the “odds are against it,” given that the Taliban will need to devote its immediate attention to a wide range of security and humanitarian issues.”The Taliban has taken power but the transition from insurgent group to national government will be far from straightforward,” said Joseph Parkes, Asia security analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. “Functional governance of the nascent mineral sector is likely many years away.”Khan notes that foreign investment was hard to come by before the Taliban ousted Afghanistan’s civilian Western-backed government. Attracting private capital will be even more difficult now, particularly as many global businesses and investors are being held to ever higher environmental, social and governance standards.”Who’s going to invest in Afghanistan when they weren’t willing to invest before?” Khan said. “Private investors are not going to take the risk.”US restrictions could also present a challenge. The Taliban has not been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States. However, the group was placed on a US Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists and a Specially Designated Nationals list.An opportunity for China?State-backed projects motivated in part by geopolitics could be a different story. China, the world leader in mining rare earths, said Monday that it has “maintained contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban.””China, the next-door neighbor, is embarking on a very significant green energy development program,” Schoonover said. “Lithium and the rare earths are so far irreplaceable because of their density and physical properties. Those minerals factor into their long-term plans.”Should China step in, Schoonover said there would be concerns about the sustainability of mining projects given China’s track record.”When mining isn’t done carefully it can be ecologically devastating, which harms certain segments of the population without a lot of voice,” he said.Beijing could be skeptical of partnering on ventures with the Taliban given ongoing instability, however, and may focus on other regions. Khan pointed out that China has been burned before, having previously tried to invest in a copper project that later stalled.”I believe they will prioritize other emerging/frontier geographies well before Taliban-led Afghanistan,” said RK Equity partner Howard Klein, who advises investors on lithium.— Matt Egan and Charles Riley contributed reporting.